Synonyms & Antonyms for amenable

Choose the Right Synonym for amenable

responsible, answerable, accountable, amenable, liable mean subject to being held to account. responsible implies holding a specific office, duty, or trust.
the bureau responsible for revenue collection answerable suggests a relation between one having a moral or legal obligation and a court or other authority charged with oversight of its observance.
an intelligence agency answerable to Congress accountable suggests imminence of retribution for unfulfilled trust or violated obligation.
elected officials are accountable to the voters amenable and liable stress the fact of subjection to review, censure, or control by a designated authority under certain conditions.
laws are amenable to judicial review
not liable for the debts of the former spouse

obedient, docile, tractable, amenable mean submissive to the will of another. obedient implies compliance with the demands or requests of one in authority.
obedient to the government docile implies a predisposition to submit readily to control or guidance.
a docile child tractable suggests having a character that permits easy handling or managing.
tractable animals amenable suggests a willingness to yield or cooperate because of a desire to be agreeable or because of a natural open-mindedness.
amenable to new ideas

Did You Know?

Amenable is a legacy of Anglo-French and derives ultimately from Latin minari, meaning "to threaten." Since 1596, English speakers have been using it in courtrooms and writings of law with the meaning "answerable," as in "citizens amenable to the law." It later developed the meanings "suited" ("a simple function . . . which is perfectly amenable to pencil-and-paper arithmetic" - Nature, April 1973) and "responsive" (as in "mental illnesses that are amenable to drug therapy"). It also came to be used of people with a general disposition to be agreeable or complaisant - like Mr. Dick in David Copperfield, who was "the most friendly and amenable creature in existence." Nowadays, "amenable" is often used to describe someone who is favorably disposed to a particular named something.

Examples of amenable in a Sentence

Mr. Bush is in a position to make his party more amenable to minorities and especially blacks. He should seize the moment.— Jason L. Riley, Wall Street Journal, 16 Jan. 2003While no one yet knows how wide … margins can go, contracts establish royalty rates and project them far into the future. Many agents have thus pushed for a term of license of just a few years. Publishers, however, are not always amenable.— Steven M. Zeitchik, Publishers Weekly, 14 June 1999Some of the newer findings address a vexing flaw in the sole noninvasive screening test for detecting microscopic prostate cancer, the form most amenable to a cure.— Marc B. Garnick et al., Scientific American, December 1998 … depression, schizophrenia and manic depression, mental troubles that are now considered amenable to treatment by drug therapy …— Sherry Turkle, London Review of Books, 19 Mar. 1998
whatever you decide to do, I'm amenable—just let me know
our normally balky cat becomes the most amenable of creatures when confronted with the strange environment of the veterinary clinic

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'amenable.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.